1. Field of the Invention
The present device relates to a case to enclose and hold a plurality of microcassettes, and is particularly concerned with a case combination for a microcassette which comprises a first inside case for microcassettes which is capable of enclosing two microcassettes and a second outside case for microcassettes which is capable of enclosing said first inside case for microcassettes and having the same outline dimensions as the case for compact cassettes, thereby providing a case for microcasettes which is the same-sized as a standard tape cassette (compact tape cassette).
2. Description of the Prior Art
A conventional microcassette case to enclose microcassetes is extremely small-sized, and hence it is troublesome to keep and arrange the microcassette cases in order individually. A dovetail (projection) and a dovetail groove (concavity) are formed hitherto on both sides of each microcassette case, a plurality of microcassette cases are coupled by engaging the dovetail of a microcassette with the dovetail groove of an adjacent microcassette (dovetail joint), thus handling them uniformly in usual circumstances.
However, the microcassette cases of different manufacturers have the dovetail and the dovetail groove arranged in various shapes, and thus the method according to dovetail joint is not applicable to the case where the different manufacturers' cases are to be coupled to each other for rearrangement.
In addition, when a desired cassette case is extracted out of those which are coupled according to the conventional dovetail joint method, i.e. isolated from a series coupled status, the remaining cassette cases are loosened in pieces consequently, which must be rejoined, resulting in troublesome handling. To extract a desired cassette case, therefore, by opening its cover without removing it from the coupled status may often result in loosening totally from a weak coupled status. Further such conventional coupling method is capable of giving such a size and shape as are considerably different from the case for conventional standard size of compact tape cassettes, and hence it is extremely inconvenient to keep and arrange these in order together with the cases for compact tape cassettes.
To settle such problem, there is suggested a case for microcassettes which is specified to enclose two microcassettes and in the same outline dimensions as the case for compact tape cassettes (Japanese Utility Model, Laid-Open No. 55-160563), however, said case for microcassettes is still problematical in how to enclose microcassettes efficiently leaving a dead space which is totally not concerned with that for enclosing microcassettes. In case a multiplicity of microcassettes are enclosed forcedly in the case for one microcassette only, to extract a desired microcassette is inevitably to cause the other cassettes to come out unnecessarily or to come in contact with the other microcassettes or at the worst, tends to damage tapes of the enclosed microcassettes. Then, where 4 microcassettes, for example, are enclosed in one case, the cassette will be handled in the unit of 4 microcassettes at all times, thus involving a status inconvenient for handling.